Looking back at the top sports stories of 2024

2024 was a sports year filled with momentous records, historic seasons and crazy losses.

Lapwai’s Kase Wynott — now with Washington State — and his all-time Idaho prep basketball scoring record took the spot as our top Tribune sports story of 2024.

Here’s a look at Nos. 2-10:

No. 2: Idaho and Washington State lose their football coaches days apart

Both Palouse college football coaches, Jason Eck of Idaho and Jake Dickert of Washington State, got new jobs four days apart in December.

After leading the Idaho Vandals to a third straight Football Championships Subdivision playoff appearance, Eck left Moscow for Albuquerque, N.M., to take over the New Mexico football program.

Four days later, Dickert hopped on a private plane out of the Pullman-Moscow Regional Aiport and took the helm of Wake Forest.

Eck’s Mountain West gig was met with considerably more fanfare than Dickert’s Atlantic Coast Conference post as Eck took the job the day after the Vandals had lost to Montana State in the FCS quarterfinals, capping off the most successful three seasons in recent Idaho history.

Dickert’s departure occurred nine days ahead of the Cougars’ participation in the Holiday Bowl.

The third-year WSU coach won eight games in 2024, but his tenure ended with three straight losses by a combined margin of seven points to three teams with losing records.

Idaho hired former assistant Thomas Ford Jr. as its next head coach on Dec. 18 and WSU hired South Dakota State coach Jimmy Rogers on Dec. 28.

No. 3: Kendrick football dynasty continues at a higher classification with its fourth straight state title

The Kendrick football team doesn’t shy away from competition, consistently assembling one of the strongest nonconference 8-man schedules in the state. The Tigers faced an even tougher slate in 2024 after moving up to the 2A classification.

Despite the jump, Kendrick’s football dynasty remained intact as the team secured its fourth consecutive state championship with a commanding 50-14 victory over Butte County (Arco) Nov. 22 at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome.

Kendrick started the season 6-0 overall, extending its win streak to 31 games over three years.

The Tigers outscored their opponents 396-42 in their first six games. But the team’s winning ways came to an end with a 30-18 loss to Class 2A Whitepine League foe Logos of Moscow on Oct 18.

Kendrick (11-1) never faltered again. The Tigers rattled off five consecutive wins, including a 52-26 redemption victory over the Knights in the state semifinals at the Kibbie Dome on Nov.16.

Kendrick was led by senior Sawyer Hewett, a University of Idaho signee who racked up 1,305 all-purpose yards, scored 29 touchdowns and was named the Class 2A player of the year. Coach Zane Hobart earned coach of the year honors, while junior receiver Ralli Roetcisoender tallied 887 receiving yards and 16 TDs.

All-state linemen Brock Broyer, Wyatt Cook (seven sacks), and linebacker Xavier Carpenter anchored Kendrick’s defense.

No. 4: Lewis-Clark State baseball misses out on NAIA World Series for the first time since the 1990s

Lewis-Clark State baseball and its history of hosting and often winning or contending for the title in the NAIA World Series have amounted to a cultural touchstone in the Tribune readership area for the past several decades.

It was thus something of a collective shock to the valley’s system when the Warriors failed to qualify for the Series this past spring, setting up the first LC State-free NAIA championships since 1998.

Having finished the regular season on a 16-game winning streak, the Warriors faltered when it mattered most, going 3-4 in the postseason. LCSC first fell twice to Bushnell in the Cascade Conference Tournament, then suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Arizona Christian and UBC to see its season end in NAIA Opening Round action — all games played on its vaunted home turf at Harris Field.

No. 5: Clarkston’s Joel Dahmen makes PGA Tour bubble with an epic finish in his final tournament of the year

Fans of Clarkston pro golfer Joel Dahmen sure were in for an exciting finish to the PGA Tour fall season.

Needing to sink a 5-foot par putt to make the cut, an eagle with a sand wedge and a final-round of 6-under 64 at the RSM Classic in November, Dahmen delivered on all fronts.

The result was a narrow finish just inside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup fall standings to keep his full PGA Tour card for another year.

Dahmen was emotional after hearing he’d made the bubble and now his fans and family will get to watch him compete on the biggest stage for at least one more year.

No. 6: Idaho football goes undefeated at home for the first time in 28 years and reaches 10 wins for the first time since 1993

During Jason Eck’s three-year tenure as the coach of the Idaho football team, the Vandals developed a habit of breaking long-standing droughts — some dating back to when Nitro was beating Raw during the “Monday Night Wars” of professional wrestling.

That trend continued for UI this season, with a 10-win campaign, its first since 1993. The Vandals also went undefeated at home (6-0) for the first time in 28 years.

Idaho qualified for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the third consecutive year. But its season came to a close with a 52-19 loss to Big Sky foe and top-ranked Montana State in the quarterfinals Dec. 13.

No. 7: Clarkston’s Rebecca Skinner, headed to WSU, surpasses 100 career goals

Rebeca Skinner ended her Clarkston girls soccer career with more than 100 goals scored. The Bantams’ season ended in the district semifinals with a loss to Pullman, but Skinner left her mark in the record books and in the community.

Skinner will return to Pullman to join the Washington State women’s soccer team in fall of 2025, joining a program with a winning pedigree and with several notable alumni, including Morgan Weaver and the U.S. national team’s Trinity Rodman.

Skinner’s 100th goal came in usual Skinner fashion — a four-goal game in a 5-1 win over North Central of Spokane on Sept. 24.

She went on to finish her high school career with 123 goals and Offensive MVP honors in the Greater Spokane League.

No. 8: WSU men’s basketball makes NCAA Tournament for first time since 2008, coach Kyle Smith leaves, David Riley hired

The 2023-24 Washington State men’s basketball team won 25 games, finished second in the Pac-12 Conference and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.

It was a season full of underdog stories for the Cougar men.

Guard Myles Rice made his collegiate debut after battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

NCAA-Division II-transfer Jaylen Wells started the year on the bench and earned a starting role in time to sink the dagger shot to beat then-No. 4 Arizona 77-74 on Feb. 22 in Tucson. The Memphis Grizzlies drafted Wells No. 39 overall in the 2024 NBA draft.

Idaho transfer Isaac Jones turned his 15.3-points-per-game senior season into an NBA roster spot with the Sacramento Kings.

Coach Kyle Smith led the Cougs to a first-round tournament win over Drake on March 21 in Omaha, Neb., and WSU’s season ended with a second-round loss to Iowa State on March 23.

Smith left Pullman for Stanford after the season and every player except for two hit the transfer portal.

Freshman guard Isaiah Watts, the grandson of former Seattle SuperSonic Slick Watts, and freshman Parker Gerrits, choose to stay in Pullman.

WSU hired Eastern Washington coach David Riley as the next Cougar men’s basketball coach.

Riley and the rebuilt Cougs have started the 2024-25 season 12-3 in their first year in the West Coast Conference.

No. 9: Gonzalez scandal shocks Idaho volleyball

Eleven current and former University of Idaho volleyball players, parents and staff came forward with allegations against former coach Chris Gonzalez, prompting investigations by the university’s Office of Civil Rights and the U.S. Center for SafeSport early in 2024.

The allegations — first made public in a report by Scott Reid of the Orange County Register (Calif.) — spanned Gonzalez’s two-year tenure and included claims of physical, verbal and emotional abuse.

Gonzalez was placed on administrative leave on March 28 — many months after the allegations first surfaced — and later resigned on May 31.

Romana Redondo Kriskova assumed coaching duties, and the Vandals finished the season 1-26 overall, winning just six sets in 2024. Over the past five seasons, Idaho has compiled a 17-108 record.

No. 10: Pac-12 Conference begins rebuild by adding Gonzaga, five MWC schools

One year after the Pac-12 was ransacked by its fellow Power Five conferences and left with just two universities, the league finally got some good news in 2024.

The “Pac-2” — left with just Washington State and Oregon State remaining — did exactly what the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC did to it by pillaging the Mountain West for five of its members.

Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State on Sept. 12 pledged to join the rebuilt Pac-12 in the summer of 2026.

The MWC’s Utah State followed suit on Sept. 24.

Basketball powerhouse Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference bolstered the league when it accepted an invitation on Oct. 1.

That means a historic conference once thought to be on its deathbed now has eight total members and seven football members.

The Pac-12 will still need to add one more schools to fulfill NCAA regulations, but the conference is in a much better place than it was in 2023.

Honorable mentions

2024 featured way more than 10 top storylines. Here were some of the other top storylines from the year:

The Prairie High School (Cottonwood) boys track and field team broke state records in three relays and the 200-meter dash at the Idaho Class 1A state meet. Trenton Lorentz, Matthew Wemhoff, Ben Secrest, Dylan Uhlenkott and Noah Geis, in different combinations, accounted for the historic results.

Colfax hoops superstar was Brynn McGaughy was pursued by some of the biggest women’s college basketball teams in the country, including Caitlin Clark’s Iowa, Duke, North Carolina, UCLA and Michigan before settling on committing to Washington. The five-star recruit also transfered to Spokane Valley’s Central Valley High School for her senior season.

Moscow High School’s Jonah Elliss was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the NFL draft after wrapping up his college career at Utah.